I just started home brewing in December 07 and our 1st batch was a kit of BB Imperial pale ale... Screwed up many things on it like burning the malt extract, dropping the rubber grommet into the bucket etc... but somehow it turned out excellent.. Just finished the last bottle today and had a moment of sadness... Just thought I share a newbies experience with some of the old pros here...remember when ??

Yes, I do remember when... I started with a Mr Beer machine and made some pretty crappy watered down beer. I have also made some pretty awsome brews that never seem to stay around long. All the more reason to brew more beer. Hopfully we are learning form our errors along the way and don't be too over critical of our works. This is a hobby after all.

yep, I burnt the malt extract on my third batch and the batch came out tasting great also. It was a high gravity seasonal brew 9.5% at 389 cal. per 8 oz. had to do a couple extra laps around the track after I could walk again, Zoom...... I was also educated in keeping good notes.

When my friend asked me what I thought about getting equipment to brew our own beer, I thought it would be too much work and too expensive to bother with, but I said what the heck, let's try. He got an equipment kit for Christmas and a couple of ingredient kits. After studying the instructions and reading a few homebrewing books, we went to it. We were very surprised at the simple procedures and ease at brewing. All along I kept saying, "It can't be this simple, we must be missing something." But when It was all bottled and conditioned, we poured a bottle into 2 glasses and tasted, a Brewers Best English Pale Ale kit, and have been brewing ever since. I just remember the taste, it actually had taste to it. Not like the Bud Light I have been drinking, which to this day taste like club soda to me now. It's all a learning process and we are still picking up new things all the time. And I am sure you would hear that from brewers of all levels, that's what makes forums a vital tool to the homebrewer. Cheers.

I just was talking to a friend the other day about our first batch and he remembered how we were worried about how it was going to turn out. But it was really good. We drank our last bottle one year after it was bottled and it was even better!

The past couple of days I prepared a response to a brewing blog article that you might find helpful; my reply was too long for the blog, so I had to post it on my own website and then add a link on the blog. I think you might find it useful because your list of equipment that you just acquired does not include a kettle, propane burner, or mash-tun (since you have indicated an apparent desire to try all-grain). My post provides a few sources for stuff, and details instructions on how to make an awesome mash tun for BATCH sparging (my design will NOT be suitable for fly sparging). The link is http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/ferm-1.html